NHL Hitz Pro

Most fun since Genesis hockey? Our full review.

A couple of months back, Midway Sports announced its intention to "go pro" with its new titles. NHL Hitz Pro is the first title to sport (forgive the pun) the new moniker, and it's got a different sensibility about it, as well. The idea behind the Pro line is to give gamers more of what they're looking for in a sports title while retaining what it is that Midway has always done well. That translates into a game that features five-on-five hockey and all of the rules of the NHL, with the on-fire antics, speedy gameplay, and slick action everyone's come to expect from NHL Hitz.

While we were skeptical about the blending of the two (after all, it's like Friend George and Relationship George in the "Worlds Collide" episode of "Seinfeld"), all seems to have worked out for the best. Hitz Pro is exactly what it advertises itself to be. It's the perfect alternative to the more ponderous, sim-style offerings, even though it hangs with them in several key areas. To put it another way, Hitz Pro is fun. Maddeningly so. Addictively so. It's good for both hockey fans and more action-oriented sports gamers. Basically, it's a game that almost anyone can play and enjoy.

Features As we already mentioned, there is a fundamental shift in attitude in NHL Hitz Pro. This, of course, begins with five-on-five hockey. Previously, Hitz was three-on-three, the rink was smaller and there was a much bigger focus on individual superstars. By expanding the ice, and souping up the AI to match, one would think that Midway would normalize themselves with other hockey titles, and get somewhat lost in the shuffle.

But that didn't happen. Instead, the five-on-five format only serves to set Hitz Pro apart. Why? Because the super-speedy, big play nature of the game is intact. Hitz is still at its heart an arcade experience, but now the game is enjoyable when playing with friends (as it's always been), but also a blast to take on solo.

Part of the reason for this is that the game allows you to customize whatever hockey aesthetic you're going for. If you want to play an all-out arcade experience with big hits and fights every five minutes, you can arrange that with tons of sliders and settings. If you want to slow it down and play a more thoughtful, sim-style game, that is available, too. The sim experience doesn't quite match the level of realism of something like ESPN NHL, but the AI is surprisingly good at adapting to whatever you're looking to do.

Another big reason for Hitz' success as a single player game is the multitude of new modes added. Not only is there a cool Hockey School feature, which features the man--Scotty Bowman--dishing on the fastest game on ice, but there is an expanded Franchise Mode and a Pick Up and Play mode as well.

The Pick-up Hockey game replaces some of the old fantasy elements in Hitz: the shark and alien heads and crazy arenas. Pick-up allows players to skate the life fantastic on stages that more accurately reflect the hockey experience--and more specifically, the nostalgic hockey experience. In this mode, teams are made up of local mechanics, packs of kids playing after school, and local bar league ruffians. The arenas are a frozen pond, a municipal rink, and even a street court for roller hockey. Each arena has its own ambient sound, and goal effects, which is a nice touch. Pick-up mode is a fun side-game, and might be some gamers' favorite part of Hitz Pro. However, it would have been nice to take the actual NHL teams into these arenas in civvies and battle it out that way. Next year, perhaps.

The Franchise Mode has also gotten an overhaul. It's not designed like most Franchise Modes around, and that's both a strength and a weakness. The idea is to take an unknown squad and basically "play into the NHL" by winning a grueling schedule of games. The teams you can choose from are varied and sport some of the coolest made-up logos and uniforms we've seen. It's definitely fun to scrap and claw and try to get your local boys to graduate into the big leagues.

But there are a few problems with Franchise. First off, if you lose three games in a row, you're immediately eliminated and cannot progress. This may frustrate or frighten off first-time players who can't get by some of their early matches.

But that's not all. There should really be two separate styles of Franchise. While it's cool to try to take an up and coming team and try to put them in the NHL, it would be equally interesting to manage one team that's already a part of the NHL over multiple seasons. First off, it eliminates the qualifying, which might turn some people off. Second, it allows people to play with their own favorite team, rather than trying to force an association with a make-believe squad.